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You may be looking for information about viewscreen. T'Pol utilizing her viewer in 2154.]] In the 22nd and 23rd centuries, a viewer was an instrument that could commonly be found on the bridge of a starship and was used to scan outside the ship. The device was often included among the arsenal of tools utilized by science officers, helmsmen and chief engineers. (Star Trek: Enterprise, Star Trek: The Original Series) 22nd Century Viewers Design viewer integrated into the science station of an NX class starship.]] In the mid-22nd century, viewers had two halves whose exteriors were separated by a thin metallic silver divider. The exterior of the top half contained a brown eyepiece, through which the user directly looked, and an outer metallic silver grip. The lower half had a black outer casing and, while the device was not in use, was lowered into a hidden recess below the level of the surrounding console. When pressed, a control on the console, slightly to the left of the viewer, raised the device's lower half out of its recess, extending the viewer to its full and operational height. Simultaneously, a white light would activate from within the viewer, enabling visibility of its contents from the other side of the eyepiece. (ENT: "Broken Bow") Between April and May of 2151, the eyepiece was enlargened in depth, its diameter was reduced, and a ribbed effect was added to the outer sides of the component. The eyepiece was also darkened in color to a charcoal grey so that it matched with the black of the lower half. A metallic silver component, much like the section dividing the two halves of the device, was introduced near the top of the viewer's exterior, separating the eyepiece from the device's lower sections. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "Fight or Flight") Both these styles of viewer were successively implemented aboard the NX class starship Enterprise, where science officer T'Pol used the device during the starship's mission from 2151 until 2161. (ENT: "Broken Bow", "These Are the Voyages...") The latter style viewer was also used aboard Enterprise of an alternate timeline until 2165, when the starship's bridge and, shortly after, the entire ship itself were destroyed in a battle with several Xindi vessels. (ENT: "Twilight") History of Uses 2151 T'Pol using her original viewer in 2151.]] When, in April 2151, the NX class Enterprise unexpectedly started trembling after having entered the atmosphere of a gas giant, T'Pol used her viewer to ascertain that the shaking was due to the ship having penetrated a layer of liquid phosphorus. Soon after, when the ship's crew were tasked with recovering Captain Archer and Commander Tucker, T'Pol used her viewer to locate the ignited thruster exhaust of Archer and Tucker's commandeered Suliban cell ship and to obtain co-ordinates where Enterprise could rendezvous with the Suliban craft. (ENT: "Broken Bow") The next month, T'Pol used her viewer to see a long range tactical scan, showing Enterprise's position and that of an unidentified craft that had actually been manned by an Axanar crew which was now entirely deceased. After Enterprise approached the ship and received no response to hails, T'Pol looked through her viewer's eyepiece to help the senior officers determine whether holes surrounding a hatch on the vessel were venting ports or hull breaches. By using the viewer, she learned that residue near the holes indicated the possibility that weapons had been fired at the alien craft. (ENT: "Fight or Flight") T'Pol also used her viewer to determine that an unnamed planet, later called Archer IV, had an atmosphere largely consisting of oxygen and nitrogen, confirming that a Human landing party from Enterprise would be able to breath easily on the planet's surface. (ENT: "Strange New World") :The planet is named Archer IV in Captain Archer's biography, seen in the ENT Season 4 episode "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II". While Enterprise was plagued with malfunctions, T'Pol's viewer helped the crew discover that the problems were due to a disruption in the plasma flow being caused by the presence of a vessel hidden aft of the starship's warp nacelles. When a male member of the vessel's Xyrillian crew later explained that his craft's engines were damaged, T'Pol used her viewer to ascertain that the vessel's warp reactor was off-line, supporting the crew member's claim. (ENT: "Unexpected") While attempting to locate a group of missing Human colonists who had settled on the planet Terra Nova, T'Pol used her viewer to learn that, although the colony seemed intact, Enterprise was not detecting any biosigns from the planet. (ENT: "Terra Nova") T'Pol later used her viewer to measure a comet, one previously undiscovered by Vulcans and Humans, as having a diameter of 82.6 kilometers, bigger than any comet Humans had ever seen. (ENT: "Breaking the Ice") When Enterprise encountered a populated planet, T'Pol's viewer determined that the inhabitants of the planet, the Akaali, were a pre-industrial civilization. However, T'Pol later detected neutrino emissions from a city on the planet and speculated that they could be due to an antimatter reactor, suggesting that technologically advanced visitors had found the planet before Enterprise's crew. In an attempt to determine whether her theory was accurate, T'Pol used her viewer to scan the planet's surface for non-indigenous biosigns. Although the device did not detect any, T'Pol was uncertain of the reliability of its results, due to Enterprise's range from the planet. (ENT: "Civilization") While approaching the Earth freighter ''Fortunate'', T'Pol's viewer distinguished that there were twenty-four biosigns aboard the craft. Enterprise later left the Fortunate but, upon returning to the freighter, T'Pol reported that long range sensors, which she observed through her viewer, were detecting weapons fire - Enterprise's first indication that the freighter was being attacked by a Nausicaan craft. (ENT: "Fortunate Son") In late August of the same year, Enterprise, having previously established the subspace amplifier Echo 1, deployed Echo 2 and had several encounters with a mysterious, hostile alien ship. Upon encountering the ship for the third time, T'Pol used her viewer to determine that the vessel was dead astern. Shortly thereafter, T'Pol's viewer determined that both Echo 1 and Echo 2 had been destroyed. (ENT: "Silent Enemy") In early September, T'Pol peered through her viewer's eyepiece while Enterprise was being escorted by a transport ship around the edges of the Great Plume of Agosoria. (ENT: "Cold Front") When Enterprise encountered an alien craft of pre-warp design, T'Pol used her viewer to learn that there were two very faint biosigns aboard the vessel. (ENT: "Doctor's Orders") Enterprise later discovered a gas giant and launched a probe that T'Pol, with the aid of her viewer, tracked as it entered the planet's outer atmosphere. Soon after, T'Pol also learned from her viewer that there were, in the planet's lower atmosphere, the anomalous power signature of a starship, with several biosigns aboard. The ship was later determined to be of a Klingon design that Enterprise had not previously encountered, explaining the anomalous nature of its power signature, as seen through T'Pol's viewer. (ENT: "Sleeping Dogs") While Commander Tucker and Lieutenant Malcolm Reed were stranded in a shuttlepod in November 2151, Tucker remarked that the pod would probably only appear to Enterprise, being two days away at warp three, as "a nice little blip on T'Pol's viewer". As a method to alert Enterprise's crew to the shuttlepod and influence them to increase the starship's speed, Reed suggested firing the pod's weapons. Commander Tucker, however, argued that the shuttlepod's plasma cannons had a range of less than ten kilometres - less than what was needed to make both the weapons and the shuttlecraft appear as more than a single "blip" on T'Pol's viewer. Ultimately, Tucker and Reed decided to ignite their shuttlepod's engine and both officers were subsequently rescued by Enterprise. (ENT: "Shuttlepod One") :At the end of the episode, it is established that ''Enterprise witnessed the explosion of the shuttlepod's engine. Given Trip's knowledge of starship technology, however, his suggestion that he and Reed would probably only appear to Enterprise as a small blip on T'Pol's viewer may suggest that it was that device that detected their explosion.'' While Enterprise initially encountered the Vulcan civilian transport Vahklas, T'Pol was able to see through her viewer that the ship, occupied by Vulcan V'tosh ka'tur, belonged to a class of vessel that had not been used for a long time. (ENT: "Fusion") Enterprise later investigated the planet Kantare, the site of a crashed ship that the Starfleet crew had been informed was possibly haunted. Upon entering orbit of the planet, T'Pol used her viewer to confirm that Kantare's atmosphere was thin, but breathable. (ENT: "Oasis") 2152 In April 2152, Enterprise ventured into a planetary system that neither Vulcans nor Humans had previously charted. After the ship approached a volcanic, uninhabited Minshara class planet in the system, T'Pol deactivated her viewer, moments before Enterprise disastrously struck a cloaked Romulan mine. (ENT: "Minefield") :As she is only shown deactivating her viewer in "Minefield", it is unclear whether T'Pol had been using the device earlier, although such a possibility does seem probable. In need of repairs due to damage caused by the mine, Enterprise headed to an alien space station that T'Pol scanned with her viewer, determining that the station's interior had a liquid helium atmosphere. (ENT: "Dead Stop") After discovering a trinary star system that included a black hole, T'Pol began to study the phenomena with her viewer but was interrupted from her work. She later used the device to navigate a safe course through a debris field and away from the black hole. (ENT: "Singularity") While Enterprise pursued a Retellian freighter, the alien vessel released a cloud of debris that covered Enterprise's viewscreen. By using her viewer, T'Pol was able to identify the debris as dilithium hydroxyls and ionised pyrosulfates. (ENT: "Precious Cargo") After Commander Tucker went missing in a shuttlepod while in a system consisting of a gas giant and many moons, Enterprise's crew searched for him but they experienced interference while attempting to use their ship's sensors. T'Pol utilized her viewer to learn that many of the moons in the system had atmospheres containing selenium isotopes, the factor most likely affecting the ship's sensors. While the search continued, T'Pol later peered through her viewer's eyepiece to observe a thermokinetic analysis of the moons. She showed Captain Archer the same demonstration and explained that she, with the use of her viewer, had learned that, although the moons' surfaces were moderately cool at night, they could become extremely hot during the day, reaching temperatures possibly as high as 170 degrees. (ENT: "Dawn") T'Pol later looked through her viewer's eyepiece during Enterprise's first encounter with a Tholian starship. After a craft, one that was supposedly from the future and highly sought after by the Tholians, was armed with a torpedo warhead and dropped through one of Enterprise's launch bay doors, T'Pol used her viewer to ascertain that the Tholians had neutralised the warhead. (ENT: "Future Tense") While Enterprise was trapped inside a vast alien vessel, T'Pol determined, using her viewer, that vapour inside the alien craft only contained elements that Enterprise's sensors could identify and that the vessel contained an atmosphere mostly consisting of helium, but with trace amounts of xenon. (ENT: "The Crossing") During an attack by a Klingon D5 class battle cruiser, named the ''Bortas'', Enterprise maneuvered into the rings around a planet, where T'Pol utilized her viewer to inform the other officers on the bridge that their starship was approaching a large, rocky fragment, 600 meters in diameter. Essentially acting on the information from T'Pol's viewer, Captain Archer subsequently issued orders to hide the starship behind the rocky fragment. (ENT: "Judgment") 2153 In January 2153, Enterprise's crew studied an imminently volcanic planet. When volcanoes on the planet began to erupt, T'Pol used her viewer, discovering biosigns on the planet that appeared to be those of several microbial species that usually resided under the planet's surface but were being unearthed by the volcanic activity. (ENT: "Horizon") Later the same year, T'Pol was able to analyse a dying hypergiant star with the aid of her viewer. She saw, through the device's eyepiece, that the star was losing mass at an extraordinary rate, leading her to conclude that it would go supernova in one or two hundred years. (ENT: "Cogenitor") While Enterprise approached the thermobaric clouds surrounding the Delphic Expanse, T'Pol, using her viewer, was able to establish that the clouds were almost a million kilometers away from Enterprise. During the starship's subsequent journey through the cloud layer, T'Pol detected three energy signatures that she was able to examine with her viewer. She was only able to differentiate the readings from those of a communications buoy the starship had recently launched because she was detecting three energy signatures, not just one. (ENT: "The Expanse") Early in their search for the Xindi superweapon, Enterprise's crew was provided with coordinates to the Xindi homeworld but, while the ship was approaching the coordinates, T'Pol discovered with her viewer that there were no planets in the area. The crew ultimately learned that this was because the coordinates were for the previous Xindi homeworld, which had been destroyed. (ENT: "The Xindi") When Enterprise first encountered a sphere in the Delphic Expanse, T'Pol tried to use her viewer to scan the object's interior but discovered that the starship's sensors were being deflected. She also looked through her viewer's eyepiece to find a portal, 22 degrees north from the ship's position, that would allow access to the sphere's interior. After Captain Archer decided to ambush an Osaarian starship near the sphere, T'Pol used her viewer to determine that the alien craft, as it exited a cloaking field, had not yet detected Enterprise. (ENT: "Anomaly") After Enterprise tracked the course of a Xindi-Arboreal ship to a planet that the Xindi vessel had last visited before being destroyed, T'Pol found, with the use of her viewer, that the planet had a prolific ecosystem, including several million chromophyllic plant species. (ENT: "Extinction") Enterprise later discovered the Vulcan starship Seleya, inside an asteroid field where T'Pol utilized her viewer to ascertain that the asteroids were moving in a chaotic fashion on paths that were unpredictable. (ENT: "Impulse") As the result of a disastrous experiment with Enterprise's warp core, the ship entered an anomaly that T'Pol identified, by using her viewer, as a polaric field, approximately 11,000 kilometers in diameter. Even though her viewer helped to ascertain the nature of the field, the device was unable to instantly determine the field's composition and T'Pol required more time to complete a detailed scan. (ENT: "Similitude") In December 2153, Enterprise was forced to traverse an exceptionally intense anomaly field. In order to do so, T'Pol constructed a changeable map of the area and, while peering at the map through her viewer's eyepiece, relayed directions to Ensign Mayweather at the helm. While using her viewer, T'Pol witnessed an anomaly form, expand and merge with other anomalies, which she had never seen before. She became unable to provide the helm with directions from her viewer when the size of the anomalies increased more rapidly. As the anomalies engulfed Enterprise, causing the ship's bridge to violently tremble, T'Pol gripped to a metallic grab bar above and to the left of her viewer and was able to return her gaze to the device's eyepiece. (ENT: "Proving Ground") 23rd Century Science Viewers Design In 2254, some starships, including the ''Constitution''-class Enterprise, were not equipped with a viewer. (TOS: "The Cage") at his science station, outfitted with a viewer (2265).]] By 2265, however, the Enterprise's science station had been outfitted with a dark blue, featureless viewer that jutted out of a console at an elevated angle, camouflaged well into the darkness of the console. This style of viewer was utilized during the Enterprise's five-year mission by the vessel's science officer, Mr. Spock. (TOS: "Where No Man Has Gone Before", et al.) :It is questionable whether the device seen in "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is a viewer, as Spock does not peer through it, unlike his later viewer. The device could differ from the viewer in that its user might be able to use it while standing; it is uncertain whether Spock was indeed using the device when he looked down at his station, due to the presence of other controls on the same console. However, the device does look identical to the later viewer and a blue light at the top of the device does flash intermittently, in a scene where Spock reviews the log of the [[SS Valiant|SS ''Valiant]] and relays his findings to Kirk, suggesting that the device is most likely a visual tool and therefore has the same purpose as the viewer.'' History of Uses In 2266, Spock used his viewer to determine that there was no sign of a cube that, until the Enterprise destroyed it, had been blocking the starship's path and endangering the vessel's crew with high levels of radiation. Spock later used the viewer to analyse an object approaching the Enterprise that was larger than the cube but was in the same area of space. Using the viewer, Spock reported that the starship was receiving an exceptionally strong signal from the object but that a visual representation of the object was not yet available. (TOS: "The Corbomite Maneuver") Engineering Viewers Aboard either some or all Starfleet vessels, a secondary viewer was later added to the bridge's engineering station and was used to monitor the ship's diagnostic. (Star Trek: The Original Series) Tactical Viewers ship uses a tactical viewer during battle.]] Lieutenant Sulu on the Enterprise used a tactical viewer when the ship was engaged in battle. The viewer, which was stowed inside the helm/navigation console, would unfold at the push of a button. (Star Trek: The Original Series) In the Mirror Universe, Sergeant Mayweather used the [[USS Defiant (NCC-1764)|USS Defiant's]] tactical viewer during battle with rebel ships fighting the forces of the Terran Empire. (ENT: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II") Notable Appearances *ENT: **"Broken Bow" (Season 1) **"Fight or Flight" **"Strange New World" **"Unexpected" **"Terra Nova" **"Breaking the Ice" **"Civilization" **"Fortunate Son" **"Cold Front" **"Silent Enemy" **"Doctor's Orders" **"Sleeping Dogs" **"Fusion" **"Oasis" **"Minefield" (Season 2) **"Dead Stop" **"Singularity" **"Precious Cargo" **"Dawn" **"Future Tense" **"The Crossing" **"Judgment" **"Horizon" **"Cogenitor" **"The Expanse" **"The Xindi" (Season 3) **"Anomaly" **"Extinction" **"Impulse" **"Twilight" **"Similitude" **"Proving Ground" **"Azati Prime" **"E²" **"Zero Hour" **"Babel One" (Season 4) **"The Aenar" **"In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" **"These Are the Voyages..." *TOS: **"The Corbomite Maneuver" **"Mudd's Women" Background This device was named as a "viewer" both in script sources and in ENT: "Shuttlepod One", which finally established a name for the device in Star Trek canon. The word "viewer" was also used to refer to the viewscreen of the [[USS Voyager|USS Voyager]] in "Future's End, Part I", as well as those of the [[ECS Fortunate|ECS Fortunate]] in ENT: "Fortunate Son" and the [[IKS Bortas (D5 class)|IKS Bortas]] in ENT: "Judgment". The viewer has been the subject of many parodies, particularly of The Original Series. The helm viewer prop used in the ENT Season 4 episode "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II" was donated to the production by the makers of the New Voyages fan films. Category:Tools